CONSENT ON CAMPUS (AND ON BROADWAY)

Like much of
my logic, it doesn’t appear to make sense. WAITRESS is a female empowerment
story created by Broadway’s first all-female creative team. Its producers are
good citizens, once again supporting the Susan G. Komen Foundation with its
#WaitressPieChallenge. And, unlike the Trump administration, WAITRESS doesn't suck.

So what’s
the connection?

July, 2016:
intermission at WAITRESS. I’m chaperoning students from the NYU High School Program where I teach musical theater history every summer. Some of my
kids are on the merch line, buying posters and T-shirts because that’s what
musical theater kids do, particularly those whose parents can afford NYU
tuition. One of them of buys me an overpriced-but-not-unsatisfying mini-pie. We
all agree that Sara Bareilles’s effervescent score is the star of the show.

I turn to
the one boy in the group, an earnest, intelligent kid who always looks like
he’s trying to solve a math problem, and see instantly that he’s troubled.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“I’m
confused,” he says, “That shy, skinny waitress went on a blind date and decided
that she didn’t want to see him again. But then he shows up at her job. And when she tells him to leave, he doesn’t.”
His eyes are puddly, his voice actually shaking. “Doesn’t ‘No’ mean ‘No?’”

Suddenly, I’m Toby in SWEENEY TODD, discovering a hair in
the meat pie.

He’s right.
The character, Ogie, even sings a song called “Never Ever Getting Rid of Me,”
in which he declares “Wherever you go, I won’t be far to follow” and likens
Dawn, the waitress, to a stray cat who “played hard to get, hissing while she
scratched me / What she was trying to say was ‘Ogie come and catch me.’”

The song
gets the biggest applause in the first act. Instead of a restraining order,
Ogie gets another date. I’m not sure
how to respond, so I turn to the girls and ask them how they felt.

“Yeah, I
guess he was kinda stalker-y,” one says, “but he was so cute and funny.” All
the other girls agree.

And now Toby
discovers the fingernail in the pie…

The lights
flash and I return to my seat, gobsmacked. As a feminist ally, I’m ashamed I
missed this lapse in artistic judgment, along with my female students, the
contented audience and the historic all-female creative team itself. And I’m
impressed with the sensitivity and insight of one rising high school senior.

That young
man just entered college at the same time as Malia Obama, whose father’s campus
sexual assault guidelines are being eviscerated by Betsy DeVos. I feel
reasonably confident neither of them will personally suffer as a result, but I
worry about my young female students from the merch line. Will they trust a
predator just because he’s cute and funny? Will those predators be emboldened
now that the Grabber-in-Chief is in office?

And where
does WAITRESS fit in the equation? Next month, its national tour opens in
Cleveland, just 40 miles from Kent State. It’s not too late for the show to
alter its message. Yes, drama requires conflict and obstacles, but surely
there’s a way to ensure the show isn’t endorsing stalking as an ingredient in a
musical “baked from the heart.”

As with the
Obama policy, the necessary changes are just a few words. But a few words can make
a world of difference.